When your pet is sick, who are you going to call?
The answer could soon be PAWS Pet Health Insurance -- an accident and illness pet insurance company for U.S. pet owners.
After completing and succeeding in two major stages of the Wharton Business Plan Competition, the team of Chris and Anastasia Ashton, Alex Krooglik and Laura Bennett -- all second-year MBA students -- was named one of the eight finalists.
The plan blossomed in the minds of Ashtons approximately two years ago.
A "fortuitous event happened when our cat Bodey got sick," Chris Ashton said.
"It cost us several thousands of dollars" to treat Bodey, especially because of "how little pet insurance is offered here in the United States," Ashton continued. "We were surprised to find only four companies offering pet insurance, all with poor products that are riddled with exclusions."
As a result, the Ashtons decided to start their own insurance company and have been joined by their two friends, Krooglik and Bennett. Bennett completes the group by serving as the actuary and taking control of the financial aspects of the company.
PAWS has also been helped by an advisory board consisting of Wharton Ph.D. student Kevin Dalton, Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, Ernie Ward -- a self-declared "evangelist for pet insurance" from North Carolina -- and Canada Life, an insurance company.
With this backing, PAWS Pet Health Insurance is on its way to a hopeful future.
"I don't think anyone expects to get this far, [especially] because our idea is a quirky one," Ashton said. "We developed this idea from scratch and have even given up job opportunities for this. It's a bit ridiculous."
Despite how the idea may seem on the surface, pet health insurance has in fact existed since 1983. However, the United States has failed to develop the industry as countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the team members' native countries, have.
"Less than 1 percent of pets in the U.S. are insured, in comparison to the U.K., where over 10 percent of pets are insured," said Ashton, who is originally from England.
The goal of PAWS Pet Health Insurance is to fill this empty void in the United States, ensuring that pets can live safe lives and that their owners will not be faced with overwhelming doctors' bills.
The PAWS group will present its plan at the Wharton School's annual Venture Fair on April 28.
According to Peter Winicov, associate director of communications for the Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, "at the Venture Fair, the 'great eight' finalists will make their case before judges chosen for their knowledge and experience in venture capital. Student teams will receive $45,000 in prizes and access to entrepreneurial resources and capital."
As the competition nears its end, PAWS and the seven other finalist teams are preparing their 20-minute presentations for the judges in hopes of selling their ideas to big-name professionals within the entrepreneurial sphere and the Penn community.
If PAWS wins the competition, the group plans to invest the money straight into the company to help with the formation of a Web site and other initial development costs.
Nevertheless, the team still needs to get over "a number of milestones in funding and insurance backing, [so] winning is only part of it," Ashton said.
Anastasia Ashton added that in order to win, one must "expect the unexpected," but no matter what the final results are, the team has been having a great time working on the idea.
"We've learned to adopt to different situations and aim for things beyond our reach and then relish in them," she said.
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